Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Back to Blogging/Burlesque

Hello, dear bloggers! After a much needed and generally much enjoyed respite from the world wi(l)d web, I am happy to report both blog and shop are back up and running. What have I been up to while I've been away? Well, for one thing, at my mother's insistence (!), we saw the movie, Burlesque! I'll spare you a detailed review of the film for now, as my brain is still not fully off vacation mode, but off the top of my head, I can say that it was a campy film, but rather enjoyable in a Broadway-meets-MTV awards kind of way. I liked the nods to Cabaret and so forth. I didn't like some of the costumes or dance numbers. I *did* like Aguilera's rendition of "A Guy What Takes His Time," not to mention her hair, pearl ensemble, and feather fans employed for this number (see below for a teaser pic). After viewing the film, I can't help but wonder: what exactly IS burlesque? Is there a universally accepted definition or are there various meanings? Have the key facets of burlesque changed over the past century? IF you've seen this film and want to weigh in on it, please do post! Okay, I'm off to catch up on my blog roll reading!!

I think Burlesque is a live performance that is risqué, something that challenges accepted norms with a cheeky/flirty/fun attitude. I think the best burlesque involves wild costumes, humour, satire and elements of cabaret stage performances (dancing, choreography, side show). I don't think good burlesque ever looks trashy. It's sexy, mysterious, and alluring without being the 'town bicycle'.

Cheri, this is a really interesting definition of Burlesque. Within this, I do think only a small handful of numbers in the film would fall into the category of "burlesque" (there is a sort of acrobatic scene involving a banana and Alan Cummings dressed sort of like Joel Grey from Cabaret that comes to mind, as well as the number I've mentioned in this post. Otherwise, I thought many of the acts seemed like Pussy Cat Dolls type MTV routines...and to me, that aint burlesque!

Indeed...there may have been some "Gypsy" inspired costumes (though many of them looked like they were stolen from a cheap adult shop), but there weren't really any acts involving a "tease" (except "A Man What Takes His Time.") As is the case with most aspects of our culture, this film involved sequences in which the girls pretty much just wore revealing costumes and gyrated around, as opposed to acts involving one performer "teasing" the audience with what was hidden as much as what was ultimately shown via a more gradual costume removal, leading to a final "reveal".

Only the Alan Cumming skit and the fan dance were Burlesque. Everything else was Cabaret. Had they called it anything else, there would be no controversy over it. With that said, and being a classical Burlesque performer... I liked the Candy Fluff of a film it was. I see many of those gimmicks hitting the stage in the near future. Over all, the shows that Cher's characters produced were not Burlesque.